


Say It With Your Hands

by GirlTheyCallAllie



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, Lashton - Freeform, Love, M/M, SOULMATE TIMERS, malum
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-26
Packaged: 2018-02-22 16:31:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2514458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GirlTheyCallAllie/pseuds/GirlTheyCallAllie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Meeting your soulmate was pretty easy in this world. You had a timer on your wrist which counted down to the moment you hear their voice for the first time. Until then all you had to do was wait. </p><p>Except for Luke and Ashton it wasn't that easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Say It With Your Hands

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language so I want to apologize in advance for any mistakes (feel free to point them out)
> 
> Title is from Treacherous by Taylor Swift

Honestly, Ashton hated this whole soulmate thing. Like, wow, how cool was it to have an awful looking timer on your wrist that counted down to the moment you heard your soulmate’s voice for the first time. Although you usually didn’t even need that, because you could tell that someone was your soulmate when you met them. Usually. His parents couldn’t. They had worked in the same building for ages and seen each other multiple times until his dad one day held the door open for his mum when they both left at the same time and she said “thank you” and his timer ran out and he said “you’re welcome” and her timer ran out and then they both realized what had just happened and he asked her out for coffee and that was the horribly romantic story of how his parents met. Great! Now Ashton couldn’t care less about this whole soulmate thing. His had always displayed the same numbers: 00:00:00:00. He didn’t have a soulmate. He didn’t fucking have one. 

When he was really young, he didn’t understand that having a timer with only zeros was not normal. The ones of his parents looked exactly the same. He didn’t even understand what the numbers meant and he was too young to realize that the way his relatives looked at him was pitiful.

It was when he started pre-school that he met all these kids with horribly big numbers on their wrists which changed constantly that he asked his mother about it. So she explained the soulmate thing to him, telling him, that not having a soulmate was a normal thing that happened (it actually was, it was just really rare) and that it wasn’t bad. And because Ashton was still so little, he believed every word she told him.

Growing up he stopped believing her however. The other kids laughed at him and called him names. He wasn’t feeling normal anymore.

When he was eleven he met a girl whose timer looked like his. The difference was that hers had ticked down until she was seven and then stopped. Her soulmate had died. Ashton promised her to marry her one day, because he liked her and they both didn’t have a soulmate. She moved away a few months before he turned 13 though.  
He got older and with time the name calling stopped. People grew more mature and Ashton felt more normal again. But most people met their soulmate during their teenage years and so he watched his classmate's timers hit zero one after another. And honestly he didn’t feel that normal after all.

Now Ashton was 20. He shared a small apartment with his best (and honestly only real) friend Michael. He was one of the only people apart from his family that knew he was born without a soulmate. Usually he told everyone his soulmate had died, because he was too ashamed of the fact that no one out there had ever been supposed to love him. As selfish as that was, he was just hoping he’d find someone else with a dead person to spend the rest of his life with.

Mikey had met his soulmate during high school and it was only a matter of time before they were going to move in together and Ashton would be left alone.

\---------------  
\---------------

Luke was nervous. He had spent his Friday afternoon like every week sitting with Calum in the coffee shop around the corner from college. Now Calum had left to go out with his boyfriend and Luke had told him he was just going to head home soon. He had made sure not to let the other boy know that his timer was going to run out in less than an hour. So 1. he did not worry about the boy and insist to stay with him. Because 2. he wanted, and needed, to do this alone.

He had left the coffee shop and was wandering around the nearest park, because it felt like the right place to be at that moment. It was crowded like it was usually on a sunny day like today. The timer ticked down unrelenting. He stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans to keep them from trembling.

He watched all the people around him, wondering, knowing it could be every one of them. He saw so many pretty people, girls with long curly hair, attractive guys.

Until suddenly someone bumped into him. He spun around to be met by hazel eyes which belonged to a boy slightly shorter than him with beautiful curly caramel-colored hair. The boy mumbled a quick “sorry” while Luke just stared at him in awe, knowing this was him. The tingling in his wrist made him glance down and he looked at the numbers 00:00:00:00 which only proved to him what he already knew. This guy was his soulmate. Curly was meantime scraping his neck a bit awkwardly, feeling uneasy under the stranger’s stare. “Is something wrong?” The taller boy shook his head hastily and the other one turned to leave, which left Luke panicking about what he could do to make him stay. He reached out to touch his soulmates arm, not knowing what else to do. But the other boy flinched away and choked out a “weirdo” under his breath which Luke could hear clearly and quickly walked into the opposite direction. He disappeared in the crowd quickly. Luke just wanted to run after him and make him stay, but he had no idea how to do that. He wanted to tell him, that he was his soulmate, but he knew he couldn’t. Because Luke couldn’t talk.

\---------------  
\---------------

It was a few hours later when Ashton was sitting in a bar with some friends (“friends”; they thought his soulmate was dead) trying to drown his thoughts in alcohol. Most days he was okay living like this, but times like these, when the bar was crowded with couples clinging to each other, when his mate proudly showed off his expired timer and the girl on his arm, times like these, he felt like there was a part of him missing.

He barely listened to the conversations going on around him as he downed one drink after the other, wanting to forget preferably everything. He felt lonely despite the room full of people. His mind was getting fuzzy and his head felt heavier than normally. But he never wanted to go home, because Michael was out on a date and because his soulmate didn’t have an own flat and so they were definitely going back to their shared apartment later and because Ashton did not want to deal with seeing them being all smiles and kisses and happiness.

He ordered another drink, wanting to forget, forget, forget. But the alcohol wasn’t doing its job tonight. Instead his drunken mind wandered to thoughts he didn’t let himself think about sober. He thought about love and soulmates and everything he didn’t have. And blue eyes. He tried to focus on his friend’s conversations to stop thinking. But his thoughts kept drifting off to those pretty blue eyes, he struggled to remember the face they were part of. But all there was in his mind was just blue, blue. Blue like the sky or the sea or the jewels on his grandmas favorite necklace. Oh how he’d always loved the way those stones glistened in the sunlight. Those eyes shone like stars.

\---------------  
\---------------

Calum was worried. He was really fucking worried right now.

He’d been out on his date and texted Luke a few times just to check up on him (he always did that) but not once did he get an answer tonight.

That was the reason he was currently outside of his best friend’s house at 2am, trying to get him to open the door. He had texted him approximately 57 times, tried to call him, even threw stones at his window. He knew the younger boy was awake. The lights in his room were on and he’d seen him moving inside.

Calum: for gods sake Luke open the door!!

Calum: luke what is wrong?

Calum: lukey open the door

Calum: or I will ring the door til someone else wakes up and lets me in

Calum: I swear Ill do it

Calum: lukey please

Calum: Ill ring now

He stood on the front porch, his fingers hovering over the bell as the door swung open slightly.

When he entered the house he could only make out a faint shadow by the staircase as he blindly followed the light sound of footsteps. The whole house was dark, even Luke's room which had been lit just moments before when he had stood in front of the window.

Calum didn't turn the light on. He knew this was Luke's way of telling him he did not want to talk right now.

They sat in silence for a while, cuddled up on the younger boy's bed until Calum couldn't stand it anymore.

"What is wrong, Lukey?"

He didn't react for a few moments before he reached over to turn on the small lamp on his bedside table. He grabbed a notebook and a pen from there. Calum watched as he scribbled down sentences, cross them out again to write something new.

Luke handed the notebook over to him, nervousness flickering over his face.

_I met him. But he walked away and I couldn't say anything and I didn't know what to do. And what if I never see him again?_

He'd pushed up the sleeves of his jumper to reveal a timer that looked like Calum's now: 00:00:00:00.

The older boy remembered seeing the exact same timer a few weeks ago. But back then there had still been different numbers on it and he can't believe how he did not know his best friend's timer was about to run out. Omg, he was the worst best friend.

"Oh my, why didn't you tell me?"

Luke didn't put his answer in any words but Calum could read his face better than his handwriting some times. He hated seeing his friend look like that.

The dark haired boy had always been amazed by how little Luke let his mutism influence his life. He easily communicated with others by writing down what he wanted to say or using sign language with Cal or his family. His life could actually be considered normal. He had a lot of friends and went out like any other teenager. It only got complicated when he needed to talk to strangers, which was the reason he barely ever went anywhere alone. Calum knew this was probably the only thing he really was bothered by.

Meeting your soulmate was a big deal. And he understood of course why Luke had wanted to do that alone. But if Calum had been with him at that moment he could have explained everything to the boy. Yet he wondered if this boy didn't realize that this had been his soulmate standing right in front of him.

"Have you ever seen him before?"

The blonde shook his head.

"Okay,... . Tell me, what does he look like?"

_Dark blonde hair. Curly hair. Brown eyes._

A little bit of hope shone in Luke's eyes, and Calum hated having to shatter it. "I don't think I know anyone who looks like that."

A sad smile formed on the other boys face. "But we'll try to find him, yeah?" He nodded at that a little, not really convinced.

\---------------  
\---------------

Ashton woke up with a throbbing headache. He's not exactly sure how he got home last night. He vaguely remembers sitting in the bar, not wanting to go home at all. But the thinking only made the pain worse, so he stopped. (However he remembered clearly a pair of blue eyes.)

When he entered the living room he only found Michael there, but he knew his best friend well enough to be able to tell that everything was alright so he didn't question where his soulmate was.

He just rummaged through the kitchen drawer searching for some painkillers, much too hungover to start a conversation right now.

\---------------  
\---------------

Luke and Calum spent the following weeks mainly the same as before, except for the fact they now scanned every crowd for a guy who fitted Luke's description. They saw a few, but none of them was the right one. The blonde boy spent all of his free time at the park where he had met him first, always keeping a sign with, hello, please don't walk away, I need to talk to you, in his pocket. His search remained unsuccessful though.

Calum's relationship was at the same time absolutely perfect. The younger tried not to be jealous, but he was. (He was even more happy for them, but still). Now all three of them were sitting in a coffee shop and Luke felt a bit a bit left out there with his best friend and his boyfriend. Though Cal and Michael tried their best to include the youngest into their conversation. And it wasn't his inability to speak that made him feel like the fifth wheel. I was the loving glances they gave each other, making Luke want to find his own soulmate even more. Those two were so lucky.

While Calum had been Luke’s best friend ever since they were children the blonde and Michael had hated each other for years. The older boy had always made jokes on him when they were alone. Luke had obviously never been able to defend himself, or at least not until he wanted to physically attack Michael which he even though he hated him never wanted to do. He never told anyone about it, feeling like he was already enough of a burden to people, without them having to worry about that as well. But one time it got so bad, that Calum found him crying afterwards and Luke confessed what he had bottling up inside of him for the past years. And Calum confronted Michael about it the next day telling him: “Never go near Luke again.” And Michael’s timer ran out just then and he panicked and ran away. (Calum hadn’t known about the timer. The other boy hadn’t said anything, so his was still ticking. But he had felt the weird warm feeling in his stomach, but chose to ignore it. He only had a few days left on his wrist always. He could wait until then to figure this all out.)

Calum’s timer had hit zero, when Michael approached him that specific amount of days later and told him what happened. Since then he’d apologized at least a million times to Luke and eventually confessed that he’d always been jealous of how amazing the younger boy could play piano. And Luke told him, how he thought Michael was great at playing guitar and since then the two boys had somehow become friends.

\---------------  
\---------------

Ashton was tired from the long day at work. He went to the coffee shop, Michael had told him to meet him at. It was a crowded little place near their apartment. He could easily spot his roommate and Calum at a table in the back. However he didn't know the third guy who was sitting with them, but from what he had heard from Michael he guessed it must be Cal's best friend. His thoughts were confirmed when the boy (who was quite pretty actually) used sign language to communicate with them.

Ash went over to them. "Hey guys." He ruffled Mikey's hair and plopped down in the seat next to him across from the pretty boy. Cal and Michael greeted him and introduced the other boys to each other. Luke (and Ashton had thought, wow what a pretty name) smiled at him and - holy fuck, blue eyes! Like the blue eyes he'd been thinking about for the past few weeks and had no idea who they belonged to. And wow, they were even prettier in real life.

And Luke looked at him with big eyes, as if he had as well a memory linked to the older guy.

Calum could easily sense the sudden mood change in his friend. Where there had been sadness moments before was now a mixture of excitement and nervousness.

"Everything alright, Lukey?" The younger nodded as an answer, but it was too hastily to be convincing. Even less so, with the smile he put on quickly, which was somehow real and unreal at the same time. Michael looked a bit concerned as well and even Ashton looked uneasy sitting there more silently than Calum was used to him being. He watched the oldest boy run a had through his dirty blonde curls absentmindedly, when the image of Luke's handwriting flashed up in front of his inner eye. _Dark blonde hair. Curly hair._ And, fuck, how could he not realize that Luke's description fitted his boyfriend's roommate perfectly.

He lightly nudged the youngest boy's shoulder to get his attention without drawing the other two's interest on them too much. (They just a started an apparently very interesting conversation about their neighbor's new dog. Though Michael was holding most of it.) **Is it him?** , he signed to the blonde, his movements sloppy. Though he had years of practice and could read Luke's hands fluently there had never been much need for him to use sign language himself. Just for times like these, where they could use it as their own secret language no one else could understand.

But Luke understood him nevertheless. And he nodded.

**Can you get Mikey away for a bit, please? So I can talk to him.**

"Hey Mikey, let's get more coffee." He got up, taking the older boy's hand to pull him up and drag him away before he could protest, clearly looking taken aback. The coffee shop was pretty crowded and the line in front of the counter was long enough to give Luke some time.

Ashton felt a bit uncomfortable, hating the silence that was hanging around as he tried to think of a way to talk to a guy who wasn't able to talk.

Luke felt the awkwardness of the whole situation as well, but he was used to it. It was always the same, when he met someone new. He reached for his bag to get a pen and the notebook he always carried around for this cause. When he was with Calum, he would usually just sign what he wanted to say to him and he'd translate it to everyone else. It was quicker than having to write everything down, but when he was alone he needed to communicate like this. He turned the page which displayed his side of a conversation he had had with Michael yesterday.

_Do you remember me?_

"Um, you seem familiar somehow." He thought that, well I've basically been haunted by the memory of your awfully beautiful blue eyes for the last weeks even though I really don't know where I've ever seen you before, probably wasn't the best answer.

_We're ran into each other about three weeks ago in the park. Like literally ran into each other._

Ashton nodded, a vague memory coming up in the back of his mind.

 _And you said 'sorry' then and_ \- he hesitated for a moment before finishing the sentence, knowing it made no sense not to tell him - _my timer hit zero._

He fumbled with the pen in his hands, not daring to look up, as Ash read his words.

"I ... you mean, I'm ... I'm your ... your - " He couldn't get himself to finish the sentence, knowing it would make it feel too real and he couldn't get his hopes up. He didn't have a soulmate.

But Luke nodded, finally looking up then, when Ashton didn't react. And the older could read in his eyes that he was a hundred percent sure of his words.

But then the whole situation hit him. "Wait, you ... like you can't, you can't talk."

Luke rolled his eyes at that. _Obviously._

"No, sorry, just ... I mean, I-I can never hear your voice. Like ever." The younger shook his head.

"My timer timer had always been at zero, because I can never hear my soulmate's voice. I thought I didn't have one. Oh my god." Luke's smile grew bigger constantly. "I have a soulmate, I ... you are my soulmate. You ... wow ... I just -"

The other boy had reached for his hand across the table in an attempt to stop his babbling. It worked.

He used his free hand to write. _Calm down, yeah? I am your soulmate! Everything's fine_.

Calum and Michael came back then with cups of coffee for each of them. And when Michael questioned the hand-holding, Ashton was still too overwhelmed to form any useful sentences leaving him possibly even more confused. But it only took a thumps up from Luke for Calum to be able to explain what had just happened.

Ashton never wanted to let his soulmate's hand go.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave comments and kudos!!


End file.
